Easy Unwind

(ocean wave whispering) Hi everyone, welcome back. This next practice is just a really mellow practice to help you unwind from your day. And for this practice you'll just need one blanket. So we're going to start out coming onto the back. And I'm just gonna turn around, and I'll use my blanket as a little pillow.

So you're welcome to do the same. Just come all the way down onto your back with your knees bent and your feet hip-width apart. And just allow your arms to come down alongside your body. (inhaling deeply) And just start out here taking some really nice full deep breaths. Notice as you inhale, if you can expand your belly and your rib cage.

And tuning into your breath, and beginning to guide your breath so you feel your abdomen and your rib cage expand on your inhale. And relax on your exhale. And take a moment and just scan through your body and notice the effects of your day. And just letting go of everything that led up to you being right here in this moment. (slowly inhaling and exhaling) Sweep your arms, so that your arms are like a T shape, shoulder height, palms up.

And then walk your feet a little bit wider apart. So that they come to the edges of your mat. Take an inhale here. And as you exhale, slowly begin to lower your knees over to the right. And then inhale, bringing knees back to the center.

And exhale, lower your knees over to the left. And then let's just continue like that. Inhaling knees to center. Exhale, lower the knees to the right. And maybe this time you just allow your head to turn left.

Inhale your way all the way back through to center. And exhale knees lower left, and maybe the head rolls right. Inhale and winding back to center. Let's do two more like that on each side. Exhale knees right.

Head left. Inhale center. Exhale knees to the left and head to the right. One last time on each side. Exhaling as your knees move to the right.

Inhaling, knees move back through to center. And then exhale, lower the knees to the left. And turn your head to the right. And then as you inhale, slowly unwind, and bring your knees back to center. This time, exhale, lower your knees to the right, and just stay here.

You can again turn the head to the left. And if you'd like to take this a little deeper, you can cross your right ankle just above your left knee. Just give yourself some nice breaths. (inhaling deeply) Staying with those big belly to rib cage breaths. Keep feeding yourself that fresh new oxygen.

(breathing slowly and deeply) Good, and then slowly uncross. And the next time that you inhale, bring the knees back through to center. And as you exhale lower your knees to the left. And you can stay right here, or you can cross your left ankle just above your right knee, deepening that hip opening a little more. And then maybe turning your head to the right.

And taking those nice long full breaths where you are. The next time that you inhale, uncross the leg and then come all the way back through to center. And then walk your feet back in, hip-width apart, and draw your knees in towards your chest. And bring your hands on top of your knees and just rock a little bit from side to side. Just getting a nice little massage on your low back and your sacrum.

(breathing slowly and deeply) and then let's rock all the way over onto the right side. And then let's make our way up to the hands and the knees. And here you can take your blanket and just slide your blanket down, unfold it. And give yourself a little bit of extra padding for underneath your knees. And then crawl yourself forward, and line up your wrists underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips.

And we'll just do some Cat-Cow barrel rolls here. So we'll inhale and we'll just shift our shoulders over to the right. And then press through the hands and start to curl the back into a cat stretch. And then shift over to the left. And then slowly begin to arch the back, lift the chest to cow, and shift back to center.

And then just keep going like that. Circling the spine as if you were tracing the inside of a barrel with your spine here. And moving through cat and cow. We'll just do a few times in each direction. Good, and then the next time that you pass through cow pose in the middle, shift your shoulders over to the left.

And then start to press yourself into cat, drawing the belly back. Shift your cat all the way over to the right. And then just start those barrel rolls in the opposite direction. (breathing slowly and deeply) Good, and just one more time. Tracing the sign around the inside of that imaginary barrel.

Coming all the way back to center and finding a neutral spine. And then from here, walk your knees back a little bit more so maybe about a few inches, and tuck your toes under. And then crawl your hands forward, keep shifting your hips back so that you line your hips up over your knees here. And have your hands about shoulder-width apart. And let your forehead start to drop down towards the floor.

It may or may not touch the floor. Either way is totally fine, but if you can rest your forehead all the way down, allow your forehead to touch the floor. And if, for some reason, your shoulders do not feel comfortable here in this half-dog variation, you can set your elbows down, with the elbows bent. From here, take a nice big breath in. And as you exhale, walk your hands over to the right, and just shift your hips a little bit over to the left.

So that you're coming in to a little bit of a side bend. (breathing slowly and deeply) Notice, if you can deepen the breath through the left side of your rib cage, left side of your belly, your lungs. And then as you inhale, walk yourself all the way back through to center. And then walk your hands over to the left. And shift your hips a little bit over to the right, let your head drop.

Maybe your forehead rests on the ground. Breathing deeply here. (breathing slowly and deeply) Good, as you inhale, walk your hands all the way back to center. And then, walk your wrists back underneath your shoulders. And as you're ready, sweep your right arm up.

And then as you take your next exhale, weave that arm underneath your body. Coming down to your right shoulder. And then you can keep your left elbow bent, gently pressing your left hand into the floor to create a little more stretch, or else you can stretch your left arm forward alongside your ear. (breathing slowly and deeply) And just give yourself some nice breaths here. Just feeling that space that you're creating between your right scapula, your shoulder blade, and your spine.

Just unwinding any tightness that has accumulated from your day. And then as you're ready, slide that left hand back. And then gently press into that hand to inhale and unwind back to center. Pausing in a tabletop position, wrists under shoulders. And then as you inhale, sweep your left arm out.

And weave that left arm underneath your body. Coming down onto that left shoulder. Left side of the head. And then again, the right elbow can stay bent here, or else you can crawl those fingertips forward. And just taking some really nice breaths.

This time breathing into that space between the left scapula and your spine. Reaching the hips back. (breathing slowly and deeply) Good, and then as you're ready, slide that right hand back, and inhale, make your way all the way back up to your hands and your knees. And then let's just crawl the knees back together, and start to shift the hips back towards the heels. And walk the hands forward.

Placing the elbows down. You're welcome to place a blanket or a pillow between your hips and your calves as you make your way into child's pose. Allow the forehead to drop towards the floor. Maybe it rests on the floor here. And just allow your breath now to flow into the back body.

Really feel the back of your rib cage expand here. (breathing slowly and deeply) Good, and then as you breathe in, slowly make your way back up to your hands and your knees. And we'll just crawl off the blanket so that we can get setup for our next pose, which is one that I've learned that's called a V-sit. And we're just going to take our blanket and fold it into quarters, and we'll place it on the right side of the mat, about three-quarters of the way up to the mat. And you may find as you're going into this pose, that you need more than one blanket.

And you're welcome to add another one on there if you need to. So once you have your blanket in place, you'll crawl forward and you'll slide your right knee up towards the top of the blanket and just allow yourself to sit down on the blanket and slide your right knee out to the right. And basically you're trying to bring your right side towards parallel with the right side of your mat. And then just slide your left knee up and you can decide how far you want to bring your right shin forward. So you may keep it a little closer in, towards your right inner thigh, or else you may start to crawl that foot forward a little bit.

And then from here, turning your body towards that right knee. Flex your right foot to stabilize your knee joint. Take a nice inhale here. And you may find that this is just plenty of opening in your hip. But if you want a little more, you can start to crawl your hands forward.

And drop your chin down towards your throat. (breathing slowly and deeply) and this is a great pose to do if you've been sitting a lot during your day, or travelling in your car. As you're ready, take a breath and then just slowly walk yourself back up. And then we'll make our way out onto the hands and the knees. To switch to the other side.

So you'll crawl back a little bit. You'll slide that blanket over now to the left side of your mat. And then we'll slide the left knee forward, and then we'll just sit down onto that left hip. And then you can try to move that left thigh out. And you may need to shift your hips a little bit to the right in order to get there.

Trying to ring that left thigh parallel with the left side of your mat. And you'll draw that right knee up just a little bit more. And again, you can walk that front foot forward if you'd like more stretch. Flex the foot. And then breathe here.

And again, you can just stay upright, or if you'd like a little bit of a deeper stretch on that outer left hip, you can walk yourself forward. (inhaling deeply) And then again, just finding those breaths. Sometimes it takes a little bit of fidgeting around to get comfortable in a pose. But once you're there, give yourself the time to breathe and feel and relax into it. Good, and then as you're ready, inhale slowly.

Make your way back up. You can slide that front heel back. Crawl yourself back out to your hands and knees. And this time, we'll come into a wide-leg forward fold. So we're just going to slide our blanket back to the right side of the mat.

Sit down on to your blanket, and again, you may need to add another blanket on there. And then you'll open your legs nice and wide apart. An option is to always keep your knees bent, but this may be plenty for you right here, and you can bring your hands behind you. Or else, if you feel like you have the space in your legs, you can begin to straighten the legs. Flex the feet.

And just breathing here. (breathing slowly and deeply) Let your eyes close. And you can also walk your hands in front of your pelvis. And just slightly shift forward if you feel a little bit of space in your inner thighs and your hips. (breathing slowly and deeply) Good, and then as you feel ready, slowly make your way back up.

Reach underneath your knees and just help your legs back. And then we'll just shift around again, so that we can lay back down. And you can take your blanket again and use that for underneath your head. And then just lay all the way down onto your back. Once you're here, draw your right knee in toward your chest.

And interlace your fingers around that knee. If that's not comfortable, you can always hold behind the thigh. Then try stretching that left leg out here. (breathing slowly and deeply) just give yourself a few really nice long breaths. Opening up the low back, the back of your right hip.

(breathing slowly and deeply) and then continue to hold on to that right knee with your left hand, but stretch your right arm out, palm up. And then start to draw that right knee across your body. And we'll come into a twist. And you can stop twisting anytime that you'd like. But I'll just continue to draw that leg across and roll towards the outer edge of your left hip.

And if it's comfortable on your neck, you can turn your head towards the right hand. (breathing slowly and deeply) Breathing deeply into the belly. And on your next inhale slowly unwind. Make your way all the way back through to center. Hug that knee in one more time.

And then place your right foot down on the floor. And draw your left knee in. And pause here with the left knee drawn in. And then start to stretch that right leg out. And breathing here.

Starting to open up that back of your left hip a little bit more. The low back on the left side. And staying with those mindful, fluid breaths. (breathing slowly and deeply) and then using your right hand to hold the left knee, stretch your left arm out, shoulder height, palm up. And then start to draw that left leg across the body.

Coming into your comfortable twist. And maybe turning the head to the left. Breathing deeply here. Full, deep, belly breaths. (breathing slowly and deeply) On your next inhale, slowly unwind.

One more time, just hug that left knee in. And then hug your right knee in. And just, again, rock a little bit from side to side. (breathing slowly and deeply) And then as you feel ready, placing your feet back down on your mat, hip-width apart. Stretching your arms down alongside your body.

And you can stay right here, or if it's comfortable for you to, stretch your legs all the way out. Stretching all the way out for final relaxation. And having your feet a little bit wider than your hips and maybe flopping your feet in and out a couple times and then just letting them fall. And taking a really full breath, into the belly and the rib cage. (breathing slowly and deeply) Open your mouth.

Sigh the breath out. And allow your body to drop down into the ground beneath you. And allow yourself to rest completely. Let anything that you're holding onto from your day just drain out of you with your exhale. Let go.

You are completely welcome and invited to stay right where you are. And if you're ready to move, slowly begin to deepen your breath. And awaken your fingers and your toes. And then slowly bend your knees and roll gently over onto your side. (breathing slowly and deeply) and with as little effort as possible, just slowly, slowly press yourself up.

Allow your head and your neck to come up last. And just finding a comfortable seat. And it may be up on your blanket. And pausing for a moment here, and just feeling the effects of your practice. (breathing slowly and deeply) Drawing the hands together in front of the heart.

Thank you for sharing your practice, Namaste.